Overtime win gives Rangers advantage

New York needs one more to oust Montreal in first round

Associated Press

Updated 3:54 am, Friday, April 21, 2017

Photo: Ryan Remiorz

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New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist (30) makes the save on Montreal Canadiens centre Andrew Shaw (65) during the first period of Game 5 of a first-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series, Thursday, April 20, 2017, in Montreal. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP) ORG XMIT: RYR105 less

New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist (30) makes the save on Montreal Canadiens centre Andrew Shaw (65) during the first period of Game 5 of a first-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series, Thursday, ... more

Photo: Ryan Remiorz

Overtime win gives Rangers advantage

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Montreal

Mika Zibanejad was in the right place at the right time. The rest was just a blur.

Zibanejad scored at 14:22 of overtime to give the New York Rangers a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series.

Chris Kreider's shot on a rush went off Alexei Emelin's stick right to Zibanejad for a shot into an open side. It was Zibanejad's third career playoff goal.

"Kreider came in and tried to shoot," he said. "I just tried to get to the net and it took a fortunate bounce for us.

"I just tried to whack it to the net and then I kind of blacked out. I can't remember much after that."

Zibanejad then was mobbed by the rest of the Rangers, who can advance to the second round with a win in Game 6 on Saturday night in New York.

Jesper Fast and Brady Skjei also scored for New York. Henrik Lundqvist made 34 saves.

"A guy tries to shoot and it goes off a stick right to Mika — that's a summary of playoff hockey right there in overtime," Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi said. "It's not going to be a perfectly clean tic-tac-toe play. It's going to be something off a stick or a body in front. "It was nice that it was a clean goal and we were able to celebrate it and enjoy it."

Artturi Lehkonen scored and set up a goal by Brendan Gallagher in the first period for Montreal. Carey Price had 33 stops.

It was a game of two halves, with the Canadiens controlling most of the play in the first 30 minutes before the Rangers took over with a strong checking and counter-attacking game.

The Canadiens, who once led the series 2-1, will be looking for more from some of their top players in Game 6. Max Pacioretty is still looking for his first goal of the series. He looked to have the game on his stick during a third-period breakaway but was stopped by Lundqvist. But Montreal coach Claude Julien said he's not the only one.

"In order to get through this, we'll need more from a lot of guys," he said. "It's time for certain players to elevate their game and have that confidence and desire to be better. There's no doubt when you lose games and you're behind 3-2 you can't be satisfied as a team. There's certain players as we all know that can give us more and hopefully that's going to happen."